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Publishing teeters as Random House and Penguin plan to merge. It's time for a government policy to protect the arts
These developments all come just a few months after the Department of Justice decision that ruled in favor of Amazon and against five publishers and Apple, whom it accused of colluding to fix prices for e-books. On the surface, this ruling keeps prices lower. But as media watcher David Carr wrote in the New York Times after the April ruling, there’s a high cost paid for the low prices. The DoJ, he argues, went after the wrong monopoly, since Amazon controls somewhere between 60 and 80 percent of the e-book market (and controlled roughly 90 percent in 2010). “That’s the modern equivalent of taking on Standard Oil,” he wrote, “but breaking up Ed’s Gas ’N’ Groceries on Route 19 instead.”
Blocking the publishers from setting prices seems, at first, like a victory for the customer.
“But pull back a few thousand feet,” Carr writes, “and take a broader look at the interests of consumers. From the very beginning and with increasingly regularity, Amazon has used its market power to bully and dictate. It leaned on the Independent Publishers Group in recent months for better terms and when those negotiations didn’t work out, Amazon simply removed the company’s almost 5,000 e-books from its virtual shelves. The Seattle Times just published a series with examples of how Amazon uses its scale not only to keep its prices low, but also to keep its competitors at bay.”
So these signs of publishing contraction, coming so soon after the DoJ judgment, are a bit like the wholesale defeat of anti-corporate candidates arriving right after the Supreme Court’s pro-corporate Citizens United decision.
Some think the Penguin/Random merger is necessary to allow old-line print publishers to stand up to Amazon: If the enormous online retailer, with revenues of about $48 billion last year, has the atom bomb, the other players need to band together and build their own arsenal. Since their previous efforts were judged to be collusion, maybe a merger is the only option left. “Maybe it’s more an alliance than a consolidation,” Galassi says. “They could gain heft in negotiations.”
More tangibly, these publishers racked up significant legal fees fighting a losing battle against the Seattle behemoth; two are still fighting. (Insiders say that Simon & Schuster’s tussle with Amazon contributed to the of loss of Free Press.) In a business with a small profit margin, that money has to come from somewhere. Why not out of the hides of employees?
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But publishing – after all — is just full of a bunch of English majors in overpriced suits taking three martini lunches, right? And in a day in which self-publishing is the rage — and the rhetorical war on gatekeepers, experts and other supposed “elitists” increases — what, really, does a publisher do?
“I firmly believe in the role of the gatekeeper,” says Silverberg, who adds that we’re in a cultural and technological shift that leaves us with several things happening at once. “Readers are picking up self-published work and saying, ‘That’s it!’ Editors are going through a pile of manuscripts sent by agents and saying, ‘That’s it!’ There’s a simultaneity.”
Generally, publishers do three things. They serve as banks for writers – offering advances in exchange for the promise of a copyrighted creative work. They aggregate services – offering editing, printing and distribution, book design, marketing and publicity, and so on, all at once. And they mitigate risk.
Of these things, says “Free Ride” author Levine, a former Billboard executive editor now living in Berlin, the most important is spreading risk. “For all the talk about new models, nobody has found a way to identify winners and losers,” he says. “You have to do a mix – you place a number of bets.”
And as with albums, most books lose money. The hits – especially the mega-sellers like the Harry Potter books or “Fifty Shades of Grey” – pay for a lot of others, if the author advances were not too enormous. (Skeptics wonder whether Random House’s $3.5 million advance for “Girls” creator Lena Dunham’s memoir will even pay for itself, and muse about how that money could have been spread among, say, 10 or 20 writers.) “The only thing you make a lot of money with is a surprise hit,” Levine says. “And there are not that many surprises.”
If you put your book in the hands of a traditional publisher, you keep only a small portion of what the book makes. But if it loses money, which is likely, it’s not your mortgage or grocery bill that goes up in smoke – the publisher eats it, and tries again with another book, by you or somebody else. And if they get the math right, they end up making a small profit overall. (The odds on any given book making money are not good; the traditional publishing wisdom is that seven out of 10 lose money.)
Publishers are not unique in this – the culture business in general is built around the probability of failure. “’The Avengers’ didn’t have to make enough money to be profitable; it had to pay for the money Disney lost on ‘John Carter’,” Levine says. “‘Game of Thrones’ has to make back the money HBO lost on ‘John From Cincinnati.’ ” (Digital pirates, unlike producers, don’t have to take these risks – they only duplicate and rip off the popular stuff.)
On the creative side, perhaps the most important thing a publisher does is edit a book. And whatever the trouble with publishers, there are plenty of well-regarded editors left at the major houses. Galassi at FSG, Gerald Howard at Doubleday Books, Alice Mayhew at Simon and Schuster, Bob Weil at Norton, and Ann Godoff at Penguin (who was fired when Bertelsmann swallowed Random House in ‘98 and could now go before a firing squad of bean counters again) all have at least cult followings among those who know the business.
The editor, Silverberg says, is the irreplaceable part of the traditional publishing equation. He mentions in particular Galassi’s editing of Denis Johnson, Jonathan Franzen and Michael Cunningham over the years. “They work with the writer to make the best possible book. We can’t afford to lose editors. Editor as arbiter, editor as teacher, editor as collaborator. It’s hard to sit in that room by yourself. Writers lose perspective; editors can bring perspective.”
One of the key roles of an editor, Galassi himself says, is to find little-known writers whose work deserves to be put between covers, and moved from obscurity writing short stories or articles into a cultural conversation. “Do writers want to spend their time marketing themselves, or writing their books? There’s no dearth of need for publishers.”
One publishing veteran who asked not to be named says the official voices will announce how essential editors are. “They’ll all proclaim, ‘The editors are the jewels in the crown …’ “ The stronger they insist on it, the faster the editors’ execution will come.
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This could all lead to a silver lining for some parties: Lean, mean presses with focused missions – Graywolf, Seven Stories, Milkweed, New Directions – could do OK as publishing shrinks and six majors becomes three. “Poetry, translation, literary,” Silverberg says of the kind of boutique presses that could thrive. “They know their audiences better than they ever have.”
As wonderful as these presses are, they tend to give very small or nonexistent advances. Much of their funds come from philanthropy, the NEA and state or local arts agencies, and that money rises or falls with political leadership, tax codes and other variables.
And while self-publishing has brought some good work out along with a lot of bad, there is little to no money at the front end. (We tend to hear about the rare exception of runaway success, not the hundreds of thousands of self-published books per year that go nowhere or lose their authors money.) For the independently wealthy, those who married well, or businessmen writing valiantly on the secrets of their success, these are real options. As with much of the Internet-driven transformation of the creative class, authors hoping to make a middle-class living with a modest advance will increasingly be out of luck.
One thing that could have made this story end differently is if the United States had a significant cultural policy. We have a trade policy – we protect industries we value – and we have an anti-trust policy designed to protect consumers. We have arts and humanities endowments that assist institutions. But our cultural policy is mostly to let culture fend for itself in the open market. It works great, but sometimes it doesn’t.
Many counties in Europe have cultural policies, Levine points out. Germany has a thriving book business – with many independent bookstores and a rich mix of publishers – because the government forbids price discounts in most cases.
“If you’re a minister of culture,” Levine says, “it’s your job to further culture. It’s seen as something government should do. If you left it all to the market, almost no one would write anything in Swedish … because it’s such a small market.”
In the U.S., though, we’re accustomed to our culture – Hollywood movies, for instance – dominating, and our language serving as the world’s lingua franca: We never had to find a way to assist and preserve our culture on the world stage the way smaller nations did. (European nations developed various kinds of protections for their musical and arts “heritage” as American pop culture conquered the world in the postwar years.) So now we find ourselves with four of our six big publishers owned by European corporations. (One of the two “American” companies is essentially owned by a rogue Australian.) And with a deal between a German corporation (Bertelsmann) and a British one (Pearson, which owns Penguin) potentially rewriting American publishing.
State-steered culture probably goes against the American spirit, especially in these days of market fundamentalism. “I think we’re beyond cultural policy at this point,” the NEA’s Silverberg says, “because capitalism trumped it. There’s not even a battle to be fought there.”
Some suspect that publishers will instead find a way to make the digital revolution work for them. “I find it strange that more publishers have not decided to sell e-books directly to their readers,” says a longtime editor who asked to remain anonymous. “The publishing industry is so locked into its past, into the way it’s worked for a century and a half. It’s not in their DNA to sell directly. But some nervy publisher is going to take this up in the not-so-distant future.”
A shrunken publishing world could dampen the auctions that drive mid-list authors’ advances from the basement to reasonable levels. Those same limits, optimists hope, could also hold down unreasonable excesses, like the multimillion-dollar advances for celebrity memoirs, which are taking up more and more space in the field.
But at this point, publishing folk just don’t know. They’re jolted – even the ones whose apartments aren’t flooded. In a year or so, many of them may be bartending or getting real estate licenses or moving back in with their parents like other downsized members of the creative class. (Note to publishing’s rank and file: Pick up Louis Uchitelle’s “The Disposable American,” and try to get the phrase “to pursue other interests” taken out of your official farewell letter.) Or maybe the creative destruction will be minimal for now.
“It’s such early days,” says Silverberg. “It’s five or 10 years until we’ll know what the industry is going to be.”
Scott Timberg is a former Los Angeles Times arts and culture writer who has also contributed to the New York Times, GQ and other publications. He is the co-editor of the book "The Misread City: New Literary Los Angeles." He blogs at scott-timberg.blogspot.com/.


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New Research Into Global Online Buying Behaviour
New research by Neilsen has revealed how global online shopping habits are changing.
From the products and services bought, to the devices being used to buy them – the Neilsen Global Survey of e-commerce polled more than 30,000 people in 60 countries.
It is no surprise that online shopping is growing. Online purchase intentions have doubled since 2011. It’s not just travel either. Nearly half of global respondents intend to make an online clothing purchase in the next six months (46%).
Just Looking or Shopping?
The research found that respondents who are in the market for clothes, event tickets, books and toys, or making reservations for tours and hotels, both browse and buy online.
There is also a strong correlation between online browsing and buying in other categories. For example, in cosmetics, 33 percent of global respondents say they browse, and 31 percent say they buy. Similarly, about one-third of global respondents say they browse and buy personal care products (31%/29%) and groceries (30%/27%). About one-fourth browse and buy pet products (24%/21%) and baby supplies (23%/20%), and roughly one-fifth browse/buy flowers (20%/18%) and alcoholic drinks (20%/17%).
Online browsing and buying percentages are similar in Europe, North America and the Middle East/Africa, with a few exceptions, based on availability and opportunity. In North America and the largely developed region of Europe, shopping options proliferate, and online retailing represents another channel competing for market share. On the other hand, in the Middle East/Africa region, lower-than-average online percentages can largely be attributed to opportunity—or lack thereof. In a region where disposable income is low and shopping for daily needs is the norm, online shopping is not a priority. Nielsen expects that will change as more consumers continue to move up the socio-economic ladder.
2014. The Year of Mobile. Again.
Computers are still the most popular device for online browsing and buying among respondents in all regions. However – mobile phones are a close second choice for respondents in the Middle East/Africa region, with 55% of respondents using the device for online shopping—11 percentage points higher than the global average of 44%. Similarly, mobile phone usage is popular in Asia-Pacific (52%) and Latin America (48%). One-third of European respondents (33%) and more than one-fourth (27%) of North Americans use their mobile phones to shop.
More information about the report can be found here…

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Popular messaging app WhatsApp will discontinue service for several devices on the 31st of December. They include The messaging app will drop support for ‘BlackBerry OS’, ‘BlackBerry 10’, ‘Windows Phone 8.0’ and older platforms, from December 31, 2017.
What does this mean ?
Consumers using those devices will be unable to reverify their accounts or create new ones. The app could also stop working at any point in time.
Why is this being done ?
In a statement posted on its website, the company said the move was due to the inability of those platforms to offer the features it plans on introducing in the future. WhatsApp had made an earlier move to discontinue support, but extended it after outcry from users.
While the company may not be willing to admit this publicly, the platforms being cut off have lost massive market share, and may not be worth the resources being spent to support them.
Consumers are advised to upgrade to devices with a newer Operating System namely such as Android running OS 4.0+, iPhone running iOS 7+, or Windows Phone 8.1+ so that you can continue using WhatsApp.
What happens to chat history ?
While WhatsApp currently does not provide transfer of chat history between platforms, users are given the option of sending their chat history by email.
Implications of the move
For consumers around the world, they may have to budget buying a new phone immediately, as WhatsApp has implied that the app could stop working at any time.
WhatsApp was founded by Brian Acton and Jan Koum in 2009, and acquired by Facebook in 2104 for $19 billion. Co-founder Acton, in September resigned this year to start a foundation. The app currently has over 1 billion monthly users, making it one of the most popular in the world.
Fidelity Bank to raise N50 billion in bonds in Q4 to refinance existing debts
The new issue will be made to redeem the existing N30 billion bond which was issued at 16.48%.
One of Nigeria’s second-tier commercial banks, Fidelity Bank Plc, has concluded plans to issue up to N50 billion ($131.3 million) in local bonds by the fourth quarter of 2020, in order to refinance existing debts as the yields drop.
The disclosure was made by the Chief Operations and Information Officer, Gbolahan Joshua, during an analyst call on Tuesday, September 8, 2020.
The crash of crude oil price globally, which was triggered by the novel coronavirus pandemic, has led to a decline in bond yields on the local debt market. This has made foreign investors to dump their local assets, leaving excess liquidity in the money market. This has also put a lot of pressure on the foreign exchange market as they look for dollars to repatriate their funds.
The Fidelity Bank top executive disclosed that the new issue will be made to redeem the existing N30 billion bond which was issued at 16.48%.
The global economic situation has seen yields in the debt market drop from as high as 18% about 3 years ago to less than 5% for the one-year treasury bill.
Fidelity Bank had revealed that it expected to see a 15% drop in profit this year when compared to 2019 result due to the coronavirus pandemic. Its profit after tax increased by 21.9% to N12 billion for the half-year 2020.
The second-tier bank also disclosed that its income declined in the second quarter due to a downward review of lending rates on loans as a result of the economic downturn.
Heineken buys more units of Nigerian Breweries Plc
The Dutch firm has invested N276 million in NB since August, to increase its stake in the Brewer by 0.10%.
The major shareholder of the largest brewer in Nigeria, Heineken Brouwerijen B.V, has increased its stake in Nigerian Breweries, with the purchase of 233,110 additional units of Nigerian Breweries shares. This was disclosed by the company in a notification sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, which was seen by Nairametrics.
According to the notification, which was signed by the Company’s Secretary, Uaboi G. Agbebaku, the purchase was made on the bourse over two transactions on the 2nd and 3rd of September.
This disclosure is a regulatory requirement that must be reported to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, especially when a major shareholder or director of a publicly quoted company purchases shares in the company they own.
The analysis of these transactions indicates that the purchase consideration for the 233,110 additional units of Nigeria Breweries shares at an average price of N39.94 is put at N9.3 million.
This purchase and previous purchases further cement Heineken Brouwerijen B.V’s status as a major shareholder; the company has accumulated a total of 7,720,236 since 30th June.
As of June 30th, when Nigerian Breweries released its Half-year financial results and reviewed its shareholding pattern, the company had exactly 7,996,902,051 outstanding shares, with Heineken Brouwerijen B.V being the majority shareholder with 3,019,363,804 units, which amount to 37.76% of the total shares of the company outstanding.
Hence, with the current purchase of 233,110 additional units, and previous purchases in August and September 1, which amount to 7,487,126 units, Heineken’s ownership percentage of Nigeria Breweries is now put at 37.85%.
Insider transactions, both sales and purchases, are often an indication of how shareholders perceive a company’s valuation. It could also mean a possible capital raise or that the majority shareholders are strengthening their existing holdings.
In like manners, the purchase of the shares of Nigerian Breweries by Heineken and other majority shareholder has mopped up stray volumes on the bourse, and pushed the stock price higher by 29% or N9, from N31 it closed at on the 3rd of August to its current value of N40 with 38.2x earnings.
About the company
Nigerian breweries is the largest brewing company in Nigeria. It engages in the brewing and marketing of lager beer, stout and non-alcoholic malt drinks, and the bottling of the Schweppes range of soft drinks and Crush Orange. Its brands include Star, Gulder, Legend, Heineken, Maltina, Amstel Malta, Fayrouz, Climax, Goldberg, Malta Gold, and Life. These products are mainly sold in Nigeria and other neighbouring countries.
Key takes on NB’s financials
Nigerian Breweries was affected by the disruption in the global and domestic demand and supply chain, as profit after tax of the largest brewer dropped by as much as 58%, at the back of the adverse impact of the sharp contraction in economic activities.
The knock-on effect of the COVID-19 lockdown, which affected the trade segment of the business, affected the company sales and this triggered the 11% drop in revenue in the first half of the year.
Nestle’s parent company increases stakes in Nestle Nigeria in August
The purchase consideration for the 748,047 additional shares at an average price of N1,174.74 is put at N878.8 million.
Nestle S.A, Switzerland, the parent company of Nestle Nigeria Plc and the majority shareholder of the company, has increased its stake in the Nigerian subsidiary, as it purchased about 748,047 additional shares in August.
This was disclosed by the company in a notification sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, which is seen by Nairametrics.
This disclosure is a regulatory requirement which must be reported to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, especially when a major shareholder or director of a publicly quoted company purchases shares in the company they own.
The analysis of this development shows that the purchase consideration for the 748,047 additional shares at an average price of N1,174.74 is put at N878.8 million.
Importantly, this purchase increases the ownership percentage of Nestle S.A, this adds significantly to the multinational’s investment in the company as the parent company now owns 66.27% of Nestle Nigeria Plc.
The 66.27% ownership share of Nestle S.A. total amounts to 525, 307, 504 ordinary shares worth N617 billion out of the 792, 656, 252 shares outstanding.
Meanwhile, insiders’ transactions both sales and purchases are often an indication of how shareholders perceive the company’s valuation. It could also mean a possible capital raise or the majority shareholders strengthening their existing holdings.
About the company
Nestlé Nigeria PLC is one of the largest food and beverage companies in Africa. Nestlé Nigeria Plc engages in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of food products including purified water. It also exports some of its products to other countries within Africa.
It has three product segments: Food, Beverages and seasoning. The Food segment engages in the production and sale of Cerelac, Nutrend, Nan, Lactogen and Golden Morn. The Beverages segment engages in the production and sale of Milo, Chocomilo, Nido, Nescafe and Nestlé Pure Life. While the seasoning segment engages in the sale of Maggi cubes.
Key takes on Nestle financials
Nairametrics had earlier published after perusing through the company’s half-year unaudited financial report that the increase in the cost of sales, Administrative expenses, low finance income coupled with high costs coloured the bottom line of the company as earnings per share dipped from N33.11 to N27.53.
This shows the knock-on-effect of the pandemic on a giant like Nestle, despite grappling hard to keep revenues flat year on year, the increase in key costs still ebbed earnings.


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You’ve probably heard of the term “digital detox”, or “technology detox”, and wondered not only exactly what it is, but also whether it could be the right move for you and your wellbeing.
A “digital detox” essentially entails spending less time with technology – or more specifically, reducing one’s “screen time”, whether that involves looking at a TV, smartphone, laptop screen, or similar technology.
The idea of such a “detox” is to avoid centring one’s life quite so much upon a screen, instead spending more time in the “real world”, including with family and friends.
Understandably, though, you might wonder whether a “digital detox” is simply another trendy “wellbeing” trend that isn’t very practical and doesn’t offer concrete benefits, or is instead something that you can and should embrace yourself.
The research makes a strong case for “detoxing” from tech
It’s pretty difficult to deny that screen-based technology – whether for better or worse – is everywhere these days. After all, you’re probably reading this blog post on a smartphone or laptop screen, and that’s before we even get onto how our jobs frequently depend on such tech, as well as the tendency for many of us to gobble up much of our free time browsing social media.
You probably won’t be greatly shocked, then, by statistics like the ones from Nielsen suggesting that American adults spend more than 11 hours a day – that’s almost half their day, not including sleeping time – watching, listening to, reading or generally interacting with media.
The situation doesn’t look too much different in other parts of the world. According to Statista, for instance, the average daily social media usage of Internet users across the globe amounted to 145 minutes per day in 2019 and 2020, which was up on the previously recorded figure.
However, it’s one thing to know that we’re using screen-based devices a lot, and another thing to appreciate some of the adverse impacts this can have on our mental and physical health.
Whether it’s the almost one-fifth (18%) of Americans who identify the use of technology as a very or somewhat significant source of stress, or the Swedish research from 2011 that indicates a link between young adults’ heavy technology use and depressive symptoms and sleeping problems, there are plenty of studies that show what dangers overdependence on tech can pose.
And as many of us know from direct experience, things that are bad for us from a mental health perspective are often bad for our physical health as well. This should make it unsurprising that a study from a few years ago found a link between children’s night-time tech use and a higher body mass index (BMI).
But is it really realistic to take a digital detox?
If you’re showing the classic signs of being a little too attached to screen-based tech for your own good – for instance, feeling compelled to check your phone every few minutes, and routinely experiencing anxiety and stress if you can’t find or access an Internet-ready device – it could be well worth considering a digital detox.
The good news is that contrary to the image some people may have of it, a digital detox doesn’t have to entail disconnecting yourself entirely from the wider world and making yourself impossible to contact.
It could help to simply set strong boundaries with regard to your use of screen-based tech from now on. That could take the form of a ‘curfew’ for your smartphones and tablets after 7pm, to allow your brain to ‘switch off’ from the effects of blue-light exposure before heading to bed.
Sadly, few of us have the luxury of being able to entirely ban the use of these devices from our lives. Nonetheless, we suggest that you at least spend the week ahead introducing some level of “digital detox” to your own life. Committing to such a change in routine for a week will enable you to start feeling the calming effects that digital detoxing is said to bring for many of the people who practise it.
And who knows – as a consequence, you may be inspired to keep those boundaries and limits in place, so that you can enjoy a much healthier and more sustainable relationship with your tech in the longer term. Have fun!


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Milestone Systems announced the launch of Milestone Kite, a scalable VsaaS solution for small- to medium-sized businesses that will complement the company’s existing XProtect product on Amazon Web Services.
Milestone describes Kite as a “simple, secure, and scalable VSaaS solution, while its XProtect on AWS is optimized for the enterprise market. To be available in early 2023, Kite will support more than 6,000 camera models from over 100 manufacturers.
The company told strategic partners and media attending the Milestone Partner Summit Tuesday that Kite is ideal for single or distributed organizations that need an easy way to centrally manage all their sites in one unified system.
Providing continuous access to new features with little or no maintenance effort, Milestone said Kite is designed for businesses and enterprises with high value, less complexity and multiple geographic locations such as banks, retail chains, schools, and residential buildings.
Executives said the Kite's launch comes as organizations in almost every industry, who have been moving or planning to move to the cloud for other business-critical functions, have reached a tipping point.
The cloud is a key element of their business strategy to help them be more nimble, more secure, and better able to manage resources. But until now, VMS has had complexities that made it difficult to roll into those broader business strategies, where high data volumes and real-time requirements are two examples.
That’s no longer the case, and IT leaders are looking at how and when they should bring these security and situational analysis tools into their larger cloud strategy, said Milestone Systems CEO Thomas Jensen.
“Milestone understands and recognizes the importance of offering a range of hybrid-cloud solutions to address different segments of the security market. We have been making investments in VSaaS offerings for many years to prepare for the future,” Jensen said, adding that Kite is a logical choice “as more small- to mid-sized organizations search for a cloud-based video technology solution that is easy to deploy, simple to use, has low bandwidth requirements, is scalable across locations, and is secure.”
Kite offers flexible hybrid video storage with low bandwidth needs, where video data can be stored in the cloud or at the edge, all dependent on available bandwidth.
It also delivers continuous security updates and global backup to guard against failure. It comes with built-in people and vehicle detection, heat maps, and forensic search, turning the video into intelligent data to improve security and increase operational efficiency.
CEO Andreas Pettersson said Arcules was created with a focus on building a “powerful, easy-to-use” cloud offering for smaller organizations or larger ones that are geographically dispersed with satellite or remote locations.
Kite will automatically integrate access control data with the incoming video data to enable access-based video verification, view camera feeds, and obtain immediate situational awareness.
Milestone customers “no longer need to physically visit multiple sites or spend time on maintenance. They can simply install the gateway and be done,” he said.
“Arcules was created to be at the forefront of innovation with a focus on building a powerful, easy-to-use new cloud offering for smaller organizations or larger organizations geographically dispersed with satellite or remote locations. What we’ve achieved is a cloud-native solution that is future-proof, scalable, and characterized by simplicity.”


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The Current, delivered daily.
Walmart bets ecommerce can give wealthy shoppers a reason to stay
Shoppers earning more than $100K are seeking out Walmart for groceries amid inflation, executives said.
The Walmart flywheel continues to grow.
The world’s largest retailer reported growth across its digital business on Nov. 15 in earnings for the third quarter of fiscal year 2023. Executives also detailed how those pieces fit together, and fed into the company's strategy to provide value at a time when cusotmers are looking to save money amid high inflation.
Key digital metrics from Walmart's earnings were as follows:
- Company-wide, 13% of sales for the year to date started on a digital channel.
- Walmart US ecommerce grew 16% year-over-year. That outpaces overall net sales growth of 8.5%.
- Walmart’s ecommerce marketplace, which includes third-party sellers, added 8,000 sellers in the third quarter. It now has 370 million SKUs. That number increased 50% in Q2.
- Walmart Connect, the retailer’s US advertising business, grew 40% year-over-year. The quarter saw the highest spend all year in sponsored search ads.
- Walmart+ memberships and the data business Walmart Luminate “continue to grow,” the company said, but did not offer specifics.
- International ecommerce sales were 23% of total sales, up 400 basis points year-over-, primarily due to Flipkart.
- Walmart China ecommerce sales grew 63%, and penetration reached 41% of sales.
- Sam’s Club ecommerce sales were up 20% year-over-year, with contributions from curbside pickup and ship-to-home.
'A different multiple'
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon described how the different pieces of the digital business all fit together to form the company’s flywheel.
“We're scaling our newer businesses and connecting them to our larger, established retail businesses, primarily by how we design digital interactions,” McMillon told analysts, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. “One example is how our growth in ecommerce, especially the marketplace, fuels our ad business. More items and sellers drive GMV and improved customer satisfaction. And it also drives success in advertising. They're mutually reinforcing.”
The same architecture applies to the “atoms” side of ecommerce that moves an item to a customer’s door after a sale. Growing the marketplace in turn provides more opportunities to provide third-party sellers with fulfillment services from its advancing logistics network and last-mile delivery through its Spark driver platform and GoLocal delivery-as-a-service program.
As virtuous as it is, the concept of the flywheel is straight out of the Amazon playbook. However, it's important to note that Walmart believes its unique advantage lies in building across its massive footprint of physical stores and ecommerce. Executives were careful to talk about how the digital channels were part of an “omnichannel” business that could serve customers however and wherever they wanted to shop, as opposed to an all-digital business. It's also clear that grocery will continue to be a major driver of Walmart's business. The company is gaining share in the category, and it is proving to help lift Walmart overall as spending ticks down on other types of merchandise.
Nevertheless, it’s clear that executives see digital as the channel where the company can realize new scale. As CFO John David Rainey put it, not only are businesses like advertising, data services and fulfillment faster-growing , but they also bring higher margins.
“Hopefully, we look up a number of years from now and we've got a much more diverse and durable earnings stream that also there's a different multiple ascribed to those earning streams than what exists today. We're quite excited about the opportunity in front of us,” said Rainey, who joined the company this year from PayPal.
Inventory and inflation
As the country’s largest grocer and a retailer where many people turn for low prices on large, stock-up trips, Walmart is seeing the effects of inflation up-close. Fuel prices remain high, and the company describes food inflation as “mid-teens.” This is leading consumers to make “frequent trade-offs” and prioritize everyday essentials, said Rainey. This means consumers are trading down in categories like meat and poultry, baking goods, baby and dog food. Some customers are opting for private-label in larger numbers over the name brands.
In this environment, the company is seeing gains on multiple levels. Walmart has something for high-income consumers. More customers who make $100,000 or more are shopping for groceries at Walmart, with three quarters of share gain in the category coming from this demographic. Meanwhile, the penetration of the company’s private-label brands increased 130 basis points, showing that it also has options for people who want to take prices even lower. That speaks not just to how it can respond in the moment, but how it is built.
On the topic of the other great issue facing retail in 2022, Walmart has also improved its inventory position. It was among retailers facing a glut of inventory as a result of supply chain and forecasting issues that resulted in a pileup of goods moving from being stuck in transit to the backrooms of stores. For the quarter, inventory was up 13% for the quarter, and 12.4% for Walmart US. That’s down from around 26% last quarter. Inflation, rather than units, is driving about 70% of the increase, the company said.
In-stock levels remain “heavy” in American stores, said Walmart US President John Furner, but McMillon added that the merchandise causing the glut “is getting down to the point where we probably won't be talking about that going forward.”
The priority on providing value amid inflation and the convenience of the digital business are tied together for Walmart.
With more high-income consumers coming to Walmart during tough economic times, the company wants to drive loyalty that could remain even when prices come down.
Walmart has tuned its shopping experience to this. Many of those new high-income customers are turning to Walmart for groceries, and they are also more likely to shop online. With updates on its app over the last year, Walmart has put general merchandise and food items all together. Coming to Walmart for one category may lead a shopper to leave with an item in another. So offering quality fresh food, apparel and home goods during this time can help Walmart “stand tall,” McMillon said, but the shopping experience at Walmart can play just as big of a role in the equation as the goods.
“We're focusing on earning repeat business from customers who are now shopping with us more frequently than before,” McMillon said. “For example, a strong presentation throughout fresh and apparel are priorities, along with executing pickup and delivery to create a delightful experience that saves them time. And in the case of Walmart US, it also means selling more Walmart+ memberships. As more people look to us for value, we want them to see that the experience of shopping with us is also compelling due to the new capabilities we develop.”
A late holiday surge?
Given its massive size and proximity to a large breadth of consumers, Walmart is well-positioned to see what’s coming next. For the crucial holiday quarter, the expectations lag behind the most recent results.
It expects net sales growth to slow to 3% over last year, which would be down markedly from 8.5% growth of this quarter. LIke Amazon before it, the company is taking a conservative approach to the holidays given the darkening economic picture.
“Despite a good start to Q4, our guidance assumes that the consumer could slow spending, especially in general merchandise categories, given persistent inflationary pressures in food and consumables,” Rainey said.
While a lot of the focus at Walmart and other retailers this fall has been on early holiday sales, McMillon said that price-sensitivity among consumers could lead to a surge right at the end of the holidays as people stretch dollars, as well.
“This will be one of those years where we're watching sales closely up until the last minute of Christmas Eve, and then we'll do a lot of business after Christmas,” he said.
Looking ahead past the quarter, Rainey indicated that the company is planning for inflation to remain “somewhat elevated.” The consumer is “stressed,” he said, and stimulus payment-boosted savings will recede the longer that prices remain high. In particular, inflation in dry groceries and consumables is expected to remain high.
"That's the area where we need to partner even more with our suppliers and come up with more creative solutions and try to do the best we can of relieving that pressure for customers and members," McMillon said.
At Walmart, that means a mix shift where groceries gain share while general merchandise lags will remain. But it’s also a time when the company believes its "value proposition really shines." That’s not just true in its ability to offer low prices, but in the growing assortment it is offering on its ecommerce marketplace.
“It shows you that not only are we providing products at the price point that customers want, we're providing additional products and assortment for them to buy,” Rainey said.
Trending in Retail Channels
Kellogg's takes inspiration from employees, Latin in snacks rebrand
Kellanova is now the parent of Pringles, Cheez-Its and Pop Tarts.
Kellogg Company's snacks business is now Kellanova. Here are a few finer points about how the forthcoming parent of Cheez-Its and and Pop-Tarts arrived at the new name.
Last year, Kellogg announced plans to split its business into multiple companies.
Now, one company will have North American cereals like Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops and Rice Krispies under the WK Kellogg Co banner.
Another will have snacks like Pringles, North American frozen foods such as Eggo and plant-based brands like MorningStar Farms.
This week, Kellogg announced that the snacks business has a new name: Kellanova.
Here are the strategies that Kellogg employed that led to this name:
- Ask the employees: Kellogg Company asked employees for input on the name, and received 4,000 suggestions from 1,000 employees.
- Listen to the results: 20% of the employees suggested a variation of the W.K. Kellogg name, while other employees suggested that the name include "nova."
- Go to the root: "Nova" comes from the Latin word for new. CEO Steve Cahillane said it "signals our ambition to continuously evolve as an innovative, next generation, global snacking powerhouse."
As The Wall Street Journal reports, this is just the latest new company name to take a Latin root in recent years, as Kellanova joins GE Vernova, Mondelez and Altria. It's also among a number of spinouts being completed by corporations, joining GSK spinoff Haleon, J&J's Kenvue and a forthcoming company that will spin out of 3M.
Even with a name that emphasizes moving forward, Kellanova is keeping one element that is familiar: The logo still has the iconic cursive K. It will even get the boldly simple stock ticker symbol "K" to go along with it.
Even the WK Kellogg Co is combining the past and future. The company is seeking to position itself as a "117-year-old startup," even as it draws on the name and signature of the Kellogg's founder. There's even a more subtle hint about an unwritten chapter: The "Co" doesn't have a period.
To get to the future, you need to bring along a bit of the past.


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ELLSWORTH — Some businesses in Hancock County and other coastal counties, including retail stores with more than 50,000 square feet of shopping space, restaurants, outdoor bars or tasting rooms and lodging establishments, will be required to enforce the Governor’s face covering requirement or face possible licensing violations.
Governor Janet Mills on Wednesday issued an executive order effective immediately that those businesses in Hancock, Waldo, Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc, Cumberland, and York, as well as in the cities of Bangor, Brewer, Lewiston, Auburn, and Augusta, enforce the state’s face covering requirement.
The order also allows municipalities to enforce the use of face coverings on streets and sidewalks, in parks and other public spaces where keeping 6 feet apart is difficult.
“It is important that we wear face coverings as people begin to interact more and more,” said Governor Mills in a press release. “Doing so can slow the spread of COVID-19, protect the health and safety of those around us, support businesses and allow us to safely reopen our economy. I know it may be inconvenient for some, but I also believe that Maine people care about each other, and this simple gesture is a small price to pay for knowing you could save someone’s life.”
Residents and visitors have been required to wear face coverings in public places where physical distancing is hard to maintain since April and businesses have been required to post readily visible signs notifying customers of this face covering requirement since May. The May order also gave businesses license to deny entry or service to anyone without a face covering.
Any governmental department or official that regulates licenses, permits or otherwise authorizes the operation or occupancy of eating establishments, bars or tasting rooms, lodging operations and accommodations, businesses, buildings, parks and campgrounds also can enforce the order.
Businesses that don’t comply may be subject to penalties associated with license violations, such as a revocation of said licenses or permits. The administration has established a reporting form for alleged violations of the state’s health and safety protocols.
Recent research has found that a significant portion of individuals with COVID-19 do not experience symptoms, and that those who go on to develop symptoms can transmit the virus to others before feeling sick. While face coverings may not protect the wearers, they may prevent the spread of virus, although scientists have been quick to warn that they are no substitute for physical distancing and other recommendations.
“Research shows that face coverings help limit potential transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19,” said Dr. Nirav D. Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in a statement. “Wearing a face covering in public places where physical distancing is difficult shows respect for others and reduces the risk that the virus could spread as more people move about Maine.”


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Salford Red Devils have teamed up with the University of Salford to launch Fan Fit – a new smartphone app designed to help supporters get fit and healthy while keeping up with the news from around the Club.
The app contains a fitness tracker and a league table so that supporters can measure their daily activity and rank it against fellow fans and even Salford players.
It also provides a news and video feed direct to your phone and next season will feature bespoke content from the players and coaches aimed around how to get fitter and healthier.
Red Devils’ Head of Communications Paul McNally said: “It’s been great working so closely with the University of Salford and seeing Fan Fit take shape over the last few months.
“We have a real opportunity here to take up the challenge of getting our city more active and involved. As a professional sports club focused on health and fitness so the chance to get our players and staff going head to head with the supporters is one we are relishing.”
Dr Alex Fenton, designer of Fan Fit and lecturer in digital business from the University of Salford Business School, said: “This is a wonderful opportunity for us to work with great community focused clubs like Salford. We want to create engaging digital experiences for fans around health, fitness and wellbeing.
“For Salford it will work by increasing engagement and loyalty, and for fans it will motivate them to get a little bit fitter.”
Alex, who leads the sport industry collaboration zone for the Business School at the University of Salford, said: “This is a really fun way to help sports fans get fit. It is yet another great example of the kind of work we do at Salford with industry, working directly with our partner clubs such as Salford Red Devils to try to get the best research results we can whilst addressing real health issues and creating real world impact.”
You can download Red Devils Fit now on Android and iPhone by visiting: http://fanfit.co.uk/about-fan-fit/
The app will undergo a soft launch stage where any bugs will be ironed out over the coming days and weeks.


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NEW YORK — After three years as creative director of De Beers LV, Reema Pachachi is leaving the joint venture between De Beers and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton this month to pursue her own projects.
This story first appeared in the July 14, 2004 issue of WWD. Subscribe Today.
Pachachi joined the diamond jewelry house in 2001 to develop the jewelry direction for the newly created brand. Since then, she created a signature look with the Rainfall and Wildflower collections, which feature circular clusters and floral designs. Two weeks ago, Pachachi launched two De Beers capsule collections called Corsage and Cocktail Fizz at a breakfast in London.
Pachachi couldn’t be reached for comment, but said in a statement that it’s been “an extraordinary experience working on this wonderful project. I feel very privileged to have been instrumental in creating this unique brand. However, I feel today that I want to spend some time developing my own projects.”
Pachachi arrived at De Beers around the same time as Solange Azagury-Partridge at Boucheron and Jade Jagger at Garrard. Azagury-Partridge left Boucheron in May. Pachachi is expected to continue contributing special designs to De Beers LV on a freelance basis.
“Over the past three years, she has been the key creative force behind the brand,” said Guy Leymarie, chief executive officer of De Beers LV, in a statement. “She has created some highly distinctive collections, which have quickly helped establish De Beers as a major player on the diamond jewelry scene.” The De Beers LV collections aren’t sold in the U.S. yet, but are available at De Beers stores internationally.
The company did not disclose the direction it will take creatively, but plans to do so later. A De Beers LV unit is expected to open on Fifth Avenue and 55th Street in the fall of 2005.
Also, on Tuesday, De Beers, the Johannesburg, South Africa-based diamond conglomerate, pled guilty to a 10-year-old price-fixing charge in a federal district court in Columbus, Ohio. As reported, the guilty plea was expected, following several months of negotiations with the U.S. Justice Department. In addition, the international diamond firm was fined $10 million. The firm already paid $26 million a few years ago to settle civil litigation matters connected with the 1994 case.
The pleading enables De Beers to reenter the lucrative U.S. diamond market. It also allows the firm to end nearly 60 years of legal maneuvers with the Justice Department over its pricing of industrial diamonds.
— Marc Karimzadeh and Vicki M. Young


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Super Smash Bros. fans got one of their biggest roster wishes today as Nintendo confirmed that Banjo and Kazooie are coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate via DLC set to release later this year.
As some of you may know, Banjo and Kazooie were staples of Nintendo’s Nintendo 64 lineup, but they’ve never made an appearance in a Smash Bros. game due largely to the fact that Microsoft acquired Rare. That acquisition has caused some licensing troubles that have prevented such cameos from happening in the past and also ensured that games like Donkey Kong 64 and Goldeneye 007 weren’t on the Xbox One’s Rare Replay collection.
However, Nintendo and Microsoft have been working together rather closely in recent years. Games like Mark of the Ninja and Cuphead have found their way to the Nintendo Switch, and there have been rumblings of Xbox Game Pass even being brought to Nintendo’s console at some point. It seems that the two reached some kind of agreement that allowed Banjo and Kazooie to return to a Nintendo platform once more.
Gameplay-wise, Banjo and Kazooie work about the way you’d expect them to work. They utilize some iconic attacks from the games as well as some fresh double-team maneuvers that take advantage of their set-up. Time will tell where they rank among the greatest Smash Bros. fighters.
Again, though, the real news here is that Rare characters are appearing on a Nintendo platform once more. While we don’t know whether or not you should read too much into this, this certainly opens the door for some interesting nostalgic possibilities and would, at least, help ensure that a possible N64 Classic lineup includes some of the console’s best games.
Banjo and Kazooie will join the Smash Bros. Ultimate roster sometime in the fall of 2019.
Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014.


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Sony still isn’t releasing sales figures for PlayStation VR (PSVR) yet, but it does insist that it’s performing as expected.
The Japanese electronics [...]
A new report from Super Data offers new estimates for the market size of virtual reality in 2016, suggesting 6.3 million VR headsets were shipped in the whole of [...]
Arizona Sunshine [Review: 8.5/10] is getting an update that supports full locomotion. That part we knew, but what we didn’t know was how much money the game made so [...]
Sony’s PlayStation 4 continues to widen the gap between it and the Xbox One with a strong 2016. In a statement, the consumer electronics company announced that over [...]
Owlchemy Labs, the trailblazing developers of Job Simulator, today announced its VR game available for Rift, Vive, and PlayStation VR has officially cleared $3 million in [...]
Finally we have some indication of how many VR headsets are out in the wild, even if it’s only of the mobile variety. At CES 2017 today, VentureBeat reports [...]


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A "brute force" attack on an iPhone can cycle through nine password guesses per second, according to Dino Dai Zovi, an independent security consultant and notorious Apple hacker.
-A password made up of 4 numeric characters would take 18 minutes to hack
-Alphanumeric characters are trickier. A password with 4 of them would take 51 hours to break.
-5 alphanumeric characters: 8 years
-8 alphanumeric characters: 13,000 years
Cybercriminals have a big tool chest of attacks they can use to steal information. Here are some common methods.
|Ivanka Trump White House job raises ethics questions|
|How Sears changed America|
|In interview about his falsehoods, President Trump offers new ones|
|There is a retail bubble -- and it's bursting|
|Sears has 'substantial doubt' that it can survive|


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| ||Thread Tools|
|5th June 2012, 08:52||#1|
Join Date: May 2010
Intel, Industry Shaping Future of Computing Experiences on Intel Architecture
Intel Corporation Senior Vice President Tom Kilroy officially introduced the next wave of Ultrabook systems during a keynote address at Computex Taipei 2012. Making a bold statement around the importance of touch technology, Kilroy also announced that Intel has signed agreements with several leading touch panel manufacturers to ensure adequate capacity to meet the expected demand for touch-enabled Ultrabook experiences over the next several years.
He also highlighted the company's efforts to deliver user-centric experiences across a range of mobile devices from the Ultrabook to smartphones and tablets, pointing to momentum across all three.
|Thread||Thread Starter||Forum||Replies||Last Post|
|Intel Acquires Industry-Leading, High-Performance Computing Interconnect Technology||Stefan Mileschin||WebNews||0||26th April 2012 07:59|
|Intel Architecture Driving Future of Supercomputing||jmke||WebNews||0||16th November 2009 13:26|
|PR: MSI Eclipse series for upcoming Intel Platform - Behold the future of computing||jmke||WebNews||0||20th October 2008 16:15|
|USB3.0 forks as industry gangs up on Intel||Shogun||WebNews||1||2nd June 2008 17:52|
|Intel Penryn architecture dissected||jmke||WebNews||0||28th January 2008 14:58|
|Intel to move to common CPU architecture||Sidney||WebNews||5||23rd August 2005 20:27|
|Intel banks on new architecture||Sidney||WebNews||0||3rd March 2005 19:29|
|Industry Insider Report - Future of OCZ Power Supplies||Da_BoKa||WebNews||0||14th December 2004 08:26|


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Launch of the New RealtyTech “IDX123 Facebook Edition” Home Search System
“This is a game changer; there are over 650 million Facebook users worldwide and over 150 million in the USA alone,” said Richard Uzelac, President of RealtyTech Inc. “There are many reasons for Real Estate Professionals to be active on such a huge stage as Facebook. For one, users spend over 700 billion minutes on Facebook per month and over 2.5 million websites integrate with Facebook. With our new IDX123 System: Facebook Edition, Agents can now setup shop right on Facebook’s exciting platform. Users no longer need to leave Facebook and go elsewhere to engage in all of the active and sold listings provided by the MLS.”
Real estate professionals can take full advantage of the Custom Search Links feature of the IDX123 system on the new Facebook Edition. Agents can tailor the links displayed on their Facebook profiles to match their specialized areas.
“In addition to a full advanced search, Agents can instantly create direct search links, such as ‘Malibu Estates,’ and add those quick search links to their Facebook page so users instantly know Agents’ areas of expertise,” Uzelac explained. “The options are almost boundless here.”
RealtyTech will be rolling out the new IDX123 Facebook Edition in Southern California and South Florida in phase one of the launch Monday, December 15, 2014.


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Meta (formerly Facebook) sees stock value rise despite $13B in VR losses
Meta (Formerly Facebook) Sees Stock Value Rise Despite $13 Billion VR Losses
This news is good news for traditional investors, but bad news for the metaverse and NFT supporters.
Meta – formerly Facebook – reported positive news for mainstream investors, but bad news for those interested in its virtual reality (VR) division in its 1st of February income statement.
The company generated significant revenue, earning $32.17 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022.116.61 billion for the entire year. Despite an annual loss of 4% in the fourth quarter and 1% for the full year, Meta’s fourth-quarter revenue was at the upper end of the valuation of $30-32.5 billion. previously predicted. The company also announced a $40 billion share buyback today.
The news had a positive impact on META’s share price, which gained 2.79% on the day. META has risen from $148.01 to $153.12 in the last few hours.
Meta also reported that its Reality Labs division posted $4.28 billion in operating losses in the fourth quarter of 2022 and $13.72 billion in operating losses for the full year. According to reports from CNBC, the division’s drop in revenue appears to be due to declining sales and a need for virtual reality technology that can be used with its devices.
Reality Labs is responsible for Metaverse products, including services such as the Horizon Worlds game and products such as Quest headsets. Reality Labs has also become responsible for various artificial intelligence (AI) projects starting in 2022.
However, Reality Labs’ metaverse ambitions are best known in the crypto community for driving the trend towards non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in virtual reality projects. Horizon Worlds has in-game items that can be traded, and while NFTs are not used as the basis for these items, competing blockchain projects have capitalized on the similarities.
Cryptocurrency virtual world Decentraland saw an increase in its MANA token of around 550% compared to November 2021, just after Meta announced its plans for the metaverse at the end of October 2021. Similarly, in the same month at Sandbox, his SAND token rose by 850%. Several major companies have also begun to implement plans for the metaverse and NFTs.
The excitement around the trend died down in 2022, and the tokens named above returned to the base prices. Today’s news suggests that the trend may subside.
Credit : cryptoslate.com


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From today’s Los Angeles Times:
Five days a week, Ryan Hartson scours the picked-over aisles of Mariano’s Fresh Market in Chicago to fill grocery delivery orders for Instacart. He clocks in for his shift exactly on the hour — if he’s even five minutes late, he’ll receive a “reliability incident.” Within four minutes he must accept any incoming orders. Any longer and he’ll be kicked off the shift and risk getting an incident. Three incidents in a week and he’s at risk of termination.
“It’s a very easy job to lose,” Hartson said.
To avoid missing orders, Hartson schedules his bathroom visits — after four hours of work, the app notifies him that he has earned a 10-minute paid break. Meanwhile, Instacart managers use the app to see if he’s running behind on his orders. The app also tracks Hartson’s customer communications, automatically searching for specific terms to ensure he’s using Instacart’s preferred script. If he doesn’t, his metrics will take another hit.
Metrics define the experience of Instacart’s part-time workforce. Measured weekly for employees such as Harston is the number of reliability incidents; the number of seconds it takes to pick each item; and the percentage of customers with whom they correspond. Some former and current employees say 5% to 20% of shoppers in a store can be fired weekly.
Even in the data-driven tech world, Instacart stands out for its metrics-oriented culture, interviews with more than 30 current and former employees as well as documents and recordings reviewed by The Times reveal. This drive toward productivity helps Instacart’s profit margins, a vital step for a start-up that recorded its first-ever monthly profit in April, as the coronavirus pandemic heightened demand for grocery delivery.
Instacart says it has eased enforcement of certain metrics during the pandemic, but shoppers say company policies often ignore the realities of the job, leaving them in constant fear of termination over things out of their control.
Instacart says it evaluates shoppers on more than just speed and efficiency. Natalia Montalvo, the company‘s director of shopper engagement and communications, said the in-store shopper role was built on the premise of “flexibility, efficiency, innovation and customer service.”
“Efficiency and fulfillment of customer orders in a timely manner is important,” Montalvo said, “but it’s just one of many factors we look at in our overall business health and growth relative to other contributors” such as revenue derived from advertising for and partnering with consumer brands.
Read the complete article here.


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News & events
Flusso named as finalist for two more industry awards
Flusso has been shortlisted for two further regional business awards in recognition of its technology innovation and rapid progress in bringing its first flow sensor products to market.
The company has been named as a finalist in ‘The One to Watch’ category in the 2020 Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards. These awards are designed to showcase some of the incredible technology advances arising from the Cambridge area, and cover a wide array of sectors from biotech and medtech to AI and cleantech.
Ordinarily the winners would have been announced at an autumn ceremony, but the 2020 event had to be postponed and will now run online on Thursday 15 April.
At the same time, Flusso has been named as one of three finalists in the running for a business innovation award at the SME Cambridgeshire Business Awards 2020/21. The final winners will be announced at an award night event on Thursday 29 April, which will also be held online due to the current restrictions around events.
Earlier this month, Flusso secured a Cofinitive #21toWatch Top21 business award when it was judged to be one of this year’s most inspiring and innovative companies from the East of England region.
The judges also specifically praised the company for its considerable progress over the last year, despite its early stage of commercialisation and all the additional challenges associated with multiple national lockdowns.
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GeoPost to push for international growth by rebranding as DPDgroup
La Poste Group’s international express parcels business GeoPost Group is rebranding as “DPDgroup” to help accelerate its growth internationally. The company said yesterday it wants to assert a stronger presence in there European market, where it claims a number 2 position.
All of GeoPost’s business activities in courier, express and parcels will now take place under the DPDgroup brand, building on the public recognition its trading brand DPD already enjoys.
Along with a new group logo and brand identity, which will be deployed in 22 European countries, the company’s subsidiaries Chronopost, SEUR and Interlink Express in respectively France, Spain and the UK, will gradually adopt the DPDgroup visual identity.
In France, Exapaq will adopt the DPD brand, with all GeoPost subsidiaries uniting under the DPDgroup brand.
The company said rebranding will take place over the next two to three years.
The brand DPD was originally founded by 18 German freight forwarders in 1976, joining GeoPost in April 2001. The firm now handles about 2m parcels a day with more than 500 depots in more than 40 countries, 22,000 employees and 15,000 vehicles.
As DPDgroup, the company said yesterday its strategy will be to build on its “strong” position in the business-to-business market, while expanding its business-to-consumer side to become the “benchmark” for home delivery.
Plans are particularly to target growth in e-commerce delivery, with the key selling point being its efforts to provide convenience in its parcel delivery services.
The Group said its B2C activities are rapidly developing and will soon represent 50% of its group business.
To continue seeking market share in home delivery, the company will look to expand use of its interactive delivery technology, Predict, and its Pickup-branded parcel shop network.
The firm said 95% of the population of France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg is already within 15 minutes of a Pickup location. The parcel shop network is being expanded to the UK and Spain this year, bringing the total number of locations in Europe to 22,000.
Priority will be given to making sure Predict — which offers consumers a delivery window as narrow as one hour — is available in 20 countries.
As GeoPost Group, the firm turned over EUR 4.9bn in 2014, a 13.3% year-on-year increase, with its volume up 10.7% year-on-year.
The company claims a number two position in the European courier express and parcels market, the number one position in France, Spain, Ireland and Lithuania, and the number two place in Germany and Portugal.
Last year the GeoPost Group acquired Polish firm Siódemka, through DPD Poland, to claim the number one spot in the Polish market with EUR 240m in annual sales.
The Group also took control of UK-based cross-border shipping specialist wnDirect, while building its UK capacity by starting to build a new hub in Leicestershire, planning on upping capacity by 65% by this September.
The GeoPost Group has also forged an alliance with Japan Post through its shipping partner LentonGroup, which is now 34.7% owned by GeoPost, 14.9% by Japan Post, to build its positions in Asia-to-Europe shipments.
The company said it achieved growth two times higher than the wider market in 2014.


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Pacific Online Limited Announces Interim Results For The Six Months Ended 30 June 2012
HONG KONG, Aug.27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Pacific Online Ltd. (HKSE: 543) (“Pacific Online,” or the “Company”), a leading internet content provider in China, today announced its financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2012. The Company will host a conference call to discuss these results at 9:00AM Hong Kong time on Tuesday, August 28, 2012. Dial-in details are provided at the bottom of this release.
Six Months Ended June 30, 2012 Financial Highlights
- Total revenues increased 14.0% year-over-year to RMB 298.2million
- Gross profit increased 14.9 % year-over-year to RMB 200.5 million
- Operating profit increased 3.8 % year-over-year to RMB 104.8 million
- Net profit increased 1.7 % year-over-year to RMB 85.0 million
- Basic and diluted earnings per share were RMB 7.83 cents and RMB 7.63 cents, respectively, as compared with RMB 7.79 cents and RMB 7.55 cents year-over-year, respectively
“We are pleased to announce the results of another strong interim period,” said Mr. Waiyan Lam, Chairman and CEO of Pacific Online Limited. “Our revenues rose 14% from the previous year to RMB 298.2 million, driven by increased advertising spending on our portals. PCauto, our auto market-focused portal, continues to be our strongest performing portal. Revenues increased 23% compared with the same period in 2011, despite the deceleration of automobile sales growth in China during the first half of the year. While a number of policy changes have affected demand for new car purchases in China, manufactures have stepped up their advertising to try to differentiate themselves in such a highly competitive market, and they also appear to be directing more of their advertising spending to important online outlets. We believe our high-quality content and rising brand recognition in this market are helping to draw important advertisers to our platform. We also continued to see strong performance from PClady, which focuses on the fashion and luxury goods markets and is targeted towards female consumers. We expect PClady to continue to perform well as Chinese demand for luxury and brand-name goods rises.”
“Meanwhile we continue to develop useful new features and content for our users. During the first half of 2012, we worked on optimizing our portals for mobile devices, giving users greater freedom to research their favorite brands and the latest products on the go. In addition, our two leading iPad magazines, PCauto and PChouse have already seen a pickup in new subscribers and they gained significant popularity. While we do not expect significant revenue contribution from this segment in the near future, we will continue to invest in mobile technology to better position ourselves as mobile internet expands. This year we are ramping up our R&D in preparation for further content and product launches.”
“We are cautiously optimistic for the rest of the year. As China’s middle class grows and increasingly turns to the Internet for information, shopping, and entertainment. According to data published earlier this year by the China Internet Network Information Center, internet users in China numbered over half a billion. This number is projected to grow over the coming years, and with it, the number of consumers reachable via traditional computer and mobile devices. Having established our brand early on, we not only retain a larger user base compared with some of our competitors, we are also better-positioned to capture new users. However, we are not immune to the general slowing of the Chinese economy, and at the same time we face upward pressure in terms of retaining personnel. We will continue to invest in areas of opportunity and at the same time improve efficiency and manage cost. By staying current with the latest trends in consumer goods, and consistently catering to the changing needs and tastes of our user base, we believe we are well-prepared to lead our business forward and create long-term value for our shareholders.”
Six Months Ended June 30, 2012 Financial Results
Revenue increased by 14.0% from RMB261.5 million for the six months ended 30 June 2011 to RMB298.2 million for the six months ended 30 June 2012. The increase was mainly due to organic growth across the Company’s different portals, with notably strong performance from PCauto and PClady.
Revenue for PConline decreased by 0.8% from RMB113.8 million for the six months ended 30 June 2011 to RMB112.9 million for the six months ended 30 June 2012. The slight decrease in revenue from PConline resulted from a slowdown in advertising spending from consumer electronics clients, especially large, multinational companies.
Revenue for PCauto increased by 23.2% from RMB118.1 million for the six months ended 30 June 2011 to RMB145.5 million for the six months ended 30 June 2012. During the first six months of 2012, passenger car sales in China increased by only 5.6% to seven million vehicles, according to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Despite recent modest growth in China’s auto industry, PCauto revenues continued to show strong growth as advertisers allocate increasingly greater portions of their marketing budgets to digital media.
Revenue for PClady increased by 42.5% from RMB17.1 million of the six months ended 30 June 2011 to RMB24.3 million for the six months ended 30 June 2012. The increase was mainly the result of continued strong interest and demand for luxury and fashion goods among female consumers in China.
Revenue from the Company’s other portals, PCgames, PCbaby, and PChouse, increased by 23.6% from RMB12.5 million for the six months ended 30 June 2011 to RMB15.4 million for the six months ended 30 June 2012. Revenue from this segment increased significantly due to both higher consumer spending in Mainland China, as well as consumer goods companies allotting larger percentages of their advertising budgets to digital media.
As a percentage of total revenue, for the six month period ended 30 June 2011 compared with the six month period ended 30 June 2012, PCauto accounted for 45.2% versus 48.8%, respectively; PConline accounted for 43.5% versus 37.8%, respectively; PClady accounted for 6.5% versus 8.2%, respectively; and other operations accounted for 4.8% versus 5.2%, respectively. The shift in revenue contributions from each business resulted from the Company’s continued efforts to diversify its revenue base and scale up operations for its smaller portals.
Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue increased by 12.1% from RMB87.1 million for the six months ended 30 June 2011 to RMB97.7 million for the six months ended 30 June 2012. Gross profit margin was 67.2% for the six months ended 30 June 2012 and 66.7% for the six months ended 30 June 2011. The increase in cost of revenue was mainly due to an increase in the number of new employees to support the Company’s expansion plans.
Selling and Marketing Costs
Selling and marketing costs increased 12.9% from RMB39.9 million for the six months ended 30 June 2011 to RMB45.1 million for the six months ended 30 June 2012. The increase was primarily due to an increase in staff cost and marketing expenses.
Administrative expenses increased by 73.4% from RMB20.4 million for the six months ended 30 June 2011 to RMB35.3 million for the six months ended 30 June 2012. The increase was primarily due to an increase in staff cost, estate management fees, traveling expenses, and provision for impairment of receivables during the period.
Product Development Expenses
Product development expenses increased by 31.2% from RMB13.1 million for the six months ended 30 June 2011 to RMB17.2 million for the six months ended 30 June 2012. The increase was primarily due to greater staff recruitment in research and development during the period.
Operating Profit before Share-based Compensation Expenses (non-GAAP)
Operating profit before share-based compensation expenses (non-GAAP) was RMB 108.2 million in the first half of 2012, representing a 3.5% increase from RMB104.5 million over the same period in 2011.
Finance Income and Cost
Net finance income was RMB2.7 million for the six months ended on 30 June 2012, compared with RMB4.2 million for the six months ended on 30 June 2011. Net finance income largely came from interest income on short-term bank deposits.
Income Tax Expense
Income tax expense increased by 4.6% from RMB21.5 million for the six months ended 30 June 2011 to RMB22.5 million for the six months ended 30 June 2012.
Net profit increased by 1.7% from RMB83.6 million for the six months ended 30 June 2011, to RMB85.0 million for the six months ended 30 June 2012.
Liquidity, Financial Resources and Dividend
As of 30 June 2012, the Company had short-term bank deposits and cash totaling RMB243.4 million, compared with RMB432.2 million as of 31 December 2011.
A cash dividend totaling RMB160.6 million was paid out during the six months ended 30 June 2012.
The Company had no external debt as of 31 December 2011 and 30 June 2010.
Management will host a conference call to discuss the results at 9:00AM Hong Kong time on Tuesday, August 28, 2012 (which is also 9:00PM EDT on Monday, August 27, 2012). Mr. Lam Wai Yan, Chairman and CEO, and Mr. Jeff Wang, Chief Financial Officer, will discuss the results and take questions following the prepared remarks.
The dial-in details for the live conference call are as follows:
- Hong Kong dial-in: 3005 2050 - Mainland China toll free: 800 876 8626 - U.S. toll free: 1 866 549 1292 - International dial-in: +852 3005 2050 Passcode: 928856#
A live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available on the investor relations section of the Company’s website at: http://corp.pconline.com.cn.
A telephone replay of the call will be available for 7 days after the conclusion of the conference call. The dial-in details for the replay are as follows:
- Hong Kong: 3005 2020 - U.S. toll free: 1 866 753 0743 - International dial-in: +852 3005 2020 Passcode: 149653#
About Pacific Online Ltd. (corp.pconline.com.cn)
Pacific Online is one of the leading Internet content providers in the PRC in terms of total advertising revenue. The Company operates six vertically-integrated portals, which, according to industry practice, are portals that focus on specific content. Among the Company’s portals are PConline, the largest portal in the PRC specializing in IT product-related content, in terms of advertising revenue, and PCauto, the largest portal in the PRC specializing in automobile-related content, in terms of advertising revenue.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those discussed in the press release. In addition, any projections about the Company’s future performance represent management’s estimates as of today August 27, 2012. The Company assumes no obligation to update these projections in the future as business and market conditions change.
For further information, please contact:
Pacific Online Ltd.
Tel: +852 2121 0634
Christensen Investor Relations
Tel: +86 131 2179 3446
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT For the six months ended 30 June 2012 Unaudited Six months ended 30 June 2012 2011 RMB'000 RMB'000 Revenue 298,174 261,488 Cost of revenue (97,663) (87,086) ------- ------- Gross profit 200,511 174,402 Selling and marketing costs (45,088) (39,945) Administrative expenses (35,317) (20,366) Product development expenses (17,200) (13,106) ------- ------- Other income 1,925 - ----- --- Operating profit 104,831 100,985 Finance income 3,070 4,519 Finance costs (358) (366) ---- ---- Finance income - net 2,712 4,153 ----- ----- Profit before income tax 107,543 105,138 Income tax expense (22,514) (21,520) ------- ------- Profit for the period 85,029 83,618 ====== ====== Attributable to: Equity holders of the Company 85,029 83,618 ------ ------ Earnings per share for profit attributable to equity holders of the Company - basic (RMB) 7.83 cents 7.79 cents ---------- ---------- - diluted (RMB) 7.63 cents 7.55 cents ---------- ----------
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME For the six months ended 30 June 2012 Unaudited Six months ended 30 June 2012 2011 RMB'000 RMB'000 Profit for the period 85,029 83,618 Other comprehensive income for the period, net of tax - - --- --- Total comprehensive income for the period 85,029 83,618 ------ ------ Attributable to: Equity holders of the Company 85,029 83,618 ------ ------
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET As at 30 June 2012 Unaudited Audited 30-Jun 31-Dec 2012 2011 RMB'000 RMB'000 ASSETS Non-current assets Lease prepayment 17,756 17,964 Property and equipment 203,828 207,299 Intangible assets 8,956 9,034 Deferred income tax assets 6,882 7,460 ----- ----- 237,422 241,757 ------- ------- Current assets Trade and other receivables and prepayments 282,714 197,300 Short-term bank deposits with original terms of over three months 2,541 2,500 Cash and cash equivalents 240,909 429,658 ------- ------- 526,164 629,458 ------- ------- Total assets 763,586 871,215 ------- ------- EQUITY Capital and reserves attributable to equity holders of the Company Ordinary shares 10,115 10,093 Reserves 622,166 697,786 ------- ------- Total equity 632,281 707,879 ------- ------- Unaudited Audited 30-Jun 31-Dec 2012 2011 RMB'000 RMB'000 LIABILITIES Non-current liabilities Deferred income tax liabilities 5,000 - ----- --- Current liabilities Accruals and other payables 82,948 106,633 Prepaid advertising subscriptions from customers 21,153 26,762 Current income tax liabilities 22,204 29,941 ------ ------ 126,305 163,336 ------- ------- Total liabilities 131,305 163,336 ------- ------- Total equity and liabilities 763,586 871,215 ------- ------- Net current assets 399,859 466,122 ------- ------- Total assets less current liabilities 637,281 707,879 ------- -------
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS For the six months ended 30 June 2012 Unaudited Six months ended 30 June 2012 2011 RMB'000 RMB'000 Cash flows from operating activities Cash generated from operations 10,316 52,804 Income tax paid (24,673) (31,486) ------- ------- Net cash (used in)/generated from operating activities (14,357) 21,318 ------- ------ Cash flows from investing activities Purchase of property and equipment (12,378) (72,639) Purchase of intangible assets (91) (65) (Increase)/decrease in short-term bank deposits with original terms of over three months (41) 12,300 Interest received 2,307 2,588 ----- ----- Net cash used in investing activities (10,203) (57,816) ------- ------- Cash flows from financing activities Purchase of shares held for Share Award Scheme (3,839) (8,298) Cash dividends paid (160,572) (140,753) Proceeds from issuance of ordinary shares 9,776 8,513 Repurchase of shares of the Company (9,326) - ------ --- Net cash used in financing activities (163,961) (140,538) -------- -------- Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents (188,521) (177,036) Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 429,658 262,283 Exchange losses on cash and cash equivalents (228) (577) ---- ---- Cash and cash equivalents at end of period 240,909 84,670 ======= ======
SOURCE Pacific Online Ltd.


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UPDATE: Of course it isn't. With Wales’ Autumn squad announced this week, expectation (and in some cases trepidation) about the soon to be launched new Macron jerseys has also been at fever pitch - and if social media is to be believed, the new-look jersey will not be for the traditionalists. In the aftermath of … Continue reading Is this Wales’ new Macron home shirt?
Italy have revealed the brand new jerseys that the Azurri will wear for the forthcoming Six Nations and Eight Nations fixtures this autumn, as well as next year's Six Nations proper, and once again they're keeping things very classic. The Italians have rarely deviated from clean and classy looks since they got into bed with … Continue reading Italy keep things simple for their 2020/21 jerseys
After what seems like endless speculation over the last few months, the hugely anticipated England Rugby Umbro 2020/21 jerseys have finally been revealed, and at long last we get a proper look at what the English sportswear brand's vision for a 2020 rugby jersey is like. And the results, perhaps unsurprisingly for anyone who happens … Continue reading England Rugby’s 2020/21 Umbro jerseys are finally here
Eddie Jones wearing Umbro's new England off-field apparel (Image courtesy of The Guardian) We may have to wait a week until we see England's brand new Umbro kit for the first time, but we dan now see what England's off-field Umbro gear will look like, courtesy of the most unlikely source - England head coach … Continue reading Eddie Jones gives us the first official look at England’s Umbro gear
UPDATE: England's new 2020 UMBRO kits have been revealed – check them out here England Rugby's brand new Umbro kits have been perhaps the most hotly anticipated new jerseys in recent years since the tie up between the RFU and the English sportswear brand was announced back in May, and now we finally have a … Continue reading England Rugby Umbro kit launch date has finally been confirmed
Scotland have revealed their brand new 2020/21 home and alternate shirts, which have been created to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first international rugby match, which was between Scotland and England in Edinburgh in 1871. As is fitting for any shirt celebrating a 150th anniversary, the home and away shirts are a return to … Continue reading NEWS: Scotland’s 2020/21 kits celebrate the first ever international rugby match


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AUGUSTA, Maine — Legislation proposed by Rep. Paul Gilbert, D-Jay, would make it easier for “Joe Six Pack” to pick up that rack of cold ones on his way home.
That’s the idea behind a bill allowing those who sell alcohol to start an hour earlier than they currently can. It means on most days those who sell alcohol for consumption off premise could open as early as 5 a.m.
Gilbert said the measure is in response to the changing hours of mill workers and others in his community who now often work 12-hour shifts. Gilbert said Thursday the end of the work day for many comes in the early morning hours and it’s no different than that of a person whose work day ends in the late afternoon.
“The idea was brought to me by a convenience store owner in Jay — they’ve been in business about 50 years in Jay,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert said in years past the local mills worked three eight-hour shifts — with the early morning shift ending at 7 a.m. “So this wasn’t an issue for them,” Gilbert said.
But now the early morning shift ends at 5 a.m. “This would help treat customers alike, no matter when they work.”
The bill, LD 15, was tabled by the Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee, but only so it could be combined with other bills dealing with alcohol during this legislative session, committee members said.
Gilbert said he sensed there was very little opposition to the change, which basically expands the hours alcohol can be bought and-or delivered legally by an hour a day.
Another part of the measure would extend the sale of alcohol to 2 a.m. on New Years Day.
Gilbert said he also believes the bill will be good for business because when people stop at the store they often buy more than just what they go for.
He said some people have voiced concern that it would lead to more drinking and driving, but the bill doesn’t change any of the laws around driving under the influence.
“We are talking about somebody who is getting out of work, they want to buy a six-pack of beer to bring home and they will be able to do that,” Gilbert said.
One other bill working its way through the Legislature would make it legal to purchase alcohol earlier in the day on Sunday, if that Sunday is St. Patrick’s Day — as it is this year.


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BEIJING—China Rubber Industry Association foresees a 6 percent annual growth rate in the country’s rubber recycling sector from 2016-20, with profit margin increasing from today’s 5 percent to 7 percent in 2020.
Under a proposal by CRIA’s reclaimed rubber comprehensive utilization subcommittee for the country’s 13th five-year plan, last year China produced 4.1 million tons of regenerated rubber, 550,000 tons of rubber powder and 15 million sets of retreaded tires.
China has become a major player in the world’s tire industry, but retreaded tires only take up 5 percent of its total tire production, compared to a rate of 10 percent in most developed markets, said the proposal.
In 2014, China saw 315 million scrap tires, less than 10 percent of which were retreaded, compared to an over 90 percent rate in developed markets.
CRIA is now aiming for a 67 percent jump in retreaded tire production to 2.5 million sets by 2020, with a steady rise for regenerated rubber and rubber powder to 6 million tons and 800,000 tons.
The ratio of exports and overseas factory sales in total sales of rubber recycling products from 2016-20 is expected to double to 25 percent.
CRIA also expects all products in the sector to meet the requirement of EU REACH restriction in heavy metals and PAHs.
Export prices, currently at 90 percent of import prices, likely will be raised to match the latter.


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A few days ago, the first domestic IPTV platform that provides users with 8K content services, jointly created by 4K Garden and New Media, was officially born. With the gradual implementation of the 8K ultra-high-definition video industry, in the future, IPTV and even public network OTT in various regions will most likely have the need to activate or play 8K content.
“The launch of the 8K zone means that the whole process of 8K upgrade has been realized from shooting and production to network transmission to terminal display. 8K TV users can truly watch long-term 8K program content and have a better audio-visual experience. Stay in the previous stage of watching short films and promotional videos.” said Dong Ming, 4K Garden Operations Director.
It is reported that the 8K zone has been launched on Xiyue TV under the New Media Co., Ltd., providing users in Guangdong with more than 100 hours of real 8K programs, and there will be at least 20 hours of content updates every month. The biggest feature of the 8K zone in terms of content composition is that it is customized for the main users of all circles, covering fitness, children, food, beauty, pets, concerts and other vertical content.
Talking about the advantages of 4K Garden in 8K content production and shooting, Wang Zijian, general manager of 4K Garden original content, believes that there are three aspects: technology, equipment, and experience, none of which are indispensable.
At the technical level, from the early stage shooting, the on-site DIT monitoring to the later stage color rendering, etc., the 4K garden can achieve true 8K full-process production. At the equipment level, 4K Garden has about 20 sets of 8K early stage photography equipment, and about forty sets of the highest configuration equipment dedicated to 8K editing and color correction, which have a certain scale. In terms of experience, 4K Garden has always been at the forefront of the production and production of ultra-high-definition content. Since 2018, it has been studying and shooting 8K ultra-high-definition content, and has made enough investment and content reserves. This is also the 8K zone that can be launched this time. Foundation and premise.
As early as March 2019, the “Ultra HD Video Industry Development Action Plan (2019-2022)” issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration of Radio and Television, and China Central Radio and Television Station put forward the overall technical route of “4K first, taking into account 8K”. Promote the development of the ultra-high-definition video industry and applications in related fields, and pointed out that in 2022, the overall scale of my country’s ultra-high-definition video industry will exceed 4 trillion yuan, the number of ultra-high-definition video users will reach 200 million, and the sales of 8K TV terminals will account for more than the proportion of total TV sales. 5%.
Broadly speaking, the promotion of 8K ultra-high-definition video content is inseparable from three elements.
One is bandwidth.Prior to this, the 8K zone could not be opened in China. The big reason was that the conditions for network transmission were not met. Due to the high resolution and high bit rate of 8K content, its requirements for bandwidth are quite high. With the vigorous development of 5G and three gigabit by operators in the past two years, the cost of home bandwidth is now reduced and the speed is gradually increasing, which can already meet the demand for 8K playback.
The second is hardware.Currently 4K TVs have become mainstream models, and 8K TVs must be the next-generation development direction. The current mainstream size of 8K TVs is 65 inches, and terminal manufacturers will also actively promote larger 8K TVs. In the future, it will not only be 75 inches, but will even reach 86 inches and 98 inches.
With the increase in 8K TV shipments and the layout of the industry, 8K TV prices will show a downward trend. In 2019, the price of domestic 8K TVs is about 30,000 yuan, and this year, 75-inch domestic brand 8K TVs of about 8,000 yuan have appeared. The monthly sales of 8K TVs, the top of the e-commerce platform sales this year, have reached nearly 10,000 units. It is conservatively estimated that the overall domestic sales of 8K TVs will be about 80,000 units, and it is optimistic that it will reach 300,000 units.
Once the number of terminal users increases and the monetization model is formed, there will be more and more enterprises and organizations that will subsequently produce 8K content. In the future, users will have a stronger purchase demand for 8K TVs, which will further upgrade the home audio-visual experience.
The third is content.This is the pain point that the current 8K ultra-high-definition video industry needs to solve. The production cost of 8K content is quite high; from HD to 4K or even 8K, production efficiency will be doubled; in addition, the cost of storage space is also higher.
There are very few 8K content on the market at present. The reason is that there is no good online channel for 8K content. Most of the time, the 8K content is downgraded to 4K or high-definition and delivered to the platform for use.
As far as terminal manufacturers are concerned, Kang Lu, senior manager of Changhong Multimedia’s Global Product Planning Center, also pointed out that the essential purpose of consumers buying TVs is to watch content. The most direct impact of experience is still content.
Since Changhong took the lead in launching the industry’s first 8K TV in early 2020, it has been actively seeking cooperation with high-quality 8K content sources such as Tencent, iQiyi, and 4K Garden. At present, Changhong 8K TV not only ranks first in the industry in terms of market share, but also ranks first in the richness of 8K content in the industry. In the future, not only 8K film and television content, but also from a horizontal perspective, Changhong is also vigorously expanding 8K content resources in fitness, games, education and other aspects.
Kang Road said that the current era of national production of content, so users’ independent production of 8K content is bound to be the future trend.
From the perspective of the domestic environment, this year the general station has launched an 8K ultra-high-definition channel test, realizing the 8K live broadcast test of the Spring Festival Gala. Next year’s Winter Olympics will be coming soon. With the help of the 8K live broadcast of the Winter Olympics, the number of 8K users will explode.
The country has begun to pay attention, and the industry has gradually formed the consciousness of producing 8K content. In addition to the large TV screen, 8K can also be better presented on the outdoor large screen. Outdoor media needs to be eye-catching in a short period of time, and can play cool short videos in naked-eye 3D, or public welfare videos. As far as the VR side is concerned, 8K is just the beginning. In the future, 12K, 16K or even 32K ultra-high-definition video will bring a better audio-visual experience through VR images.


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Apple has recently seeded the first beta of iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2 updates to developers, just one day after releasing the iOS 14 publically and a few hours after hinting at the iOS 14.2 beta in an Xcode beta update.
It is unclear why Apple has jumped to the iOS 14.2 build. The Cupertino tech giant may release iOS 14.1 separately as a bug-fixing update, or it could skip that point release completely. Most of the beta’s changes appear to be focused on the iOS Control Center. Here is everything new in the beta update.
Everything New in the iOS 14.2 beta Update
One of the biggest changes in the latest software update is a brand new Shazam toggle that can be added to Control Center. To add the new Shazam music recognition toggle to Control Center, open the Settings app, choose “Control Center,” then look for Shazam beneath the “More Controls” header. Then, add the Shazam toggle and rearrange.
Furthermore, Music controls in Control Center got a redesign, complete with music recommendations that appear when nothing is being played. The media player control now shows a large album art preview of currently playing music. A small icon of the app which is playing the content is also shown in the bottom right corner of the artwork.
Also included in the beta is a new accessibility option called “People Detection” that, when activated, allows users with weak eyesight to open a Magnifier to determine the distance to a nearby person.
Lastly, the Watch app icon has been refreshed to reflect the new Apple Watch Solo loop bands that do not have a buckle or strap.
This is the first beta version of the upcoming iOS 14.2 update, and Apple will likely release a public beta soon.
Registered developers can easily update their devices on the latest iOS 14.2 beta via the Settings app > General > Software update. Since the software is more likely not stable in the beta phase and can lead to issues like data loss, it is advised to install them on secondary devices.


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Brands are increasingly finding ways to effectively use social media to manage interactions with their consumers. Marketing Charts has put together a phenomenal article compiling data, primarily related to eCommerce, that highlights consumers reactions to brands reaching out following a negative comment. Social CRM, as I’ve written about before, is developing into one of the most powerful enterprise-level uses of social and digital media for building brand advocacy across a consumer base. See the full article below:
Social Media Creates Brand Advocates
Retailers can use social media to turn consumers who have had a negative experience with their brand into brand advocates, according to [pdf] a new report from RightNow and Harris Interactive. Data from “The Retail Consumer Report” indicates 68% of US consumers who posted a complaint or negative review of a holiday shopping experience during the 2010 holiday season were contacted by the retailer. Read more.